A poll conducted by Rasmussen reports says President Obama is leading Mitt Romney by 5 percentage points in Minnesota.

The poll, which relies on an automated, robo-dial methodology, surveyed 500 likely voters on Oct. 21. It found that 51 percent of those polled support Obama and 46 percent of those polled support Romney. One percent supports another candidate and 1 percent is undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Rasmussen, which Democrats have long argued favors GOP candidates, is the first poll that shows the presidential race in Minnesota that close. Two other pollsters, Survey USA and Public Policy Polling (which is aligned with Democrats) showed Obama leading by 10 points in recent polls.

Republicans in Minnesota have said they believe Minnesota is competitive this year but the Romney campaign has spent little money or time campaigning in the state. President Obama’s campaign has 11 field offices and more than 40 staffers working in the state.

About the blogger

Tom Scheck has covered politics and state government for more than ten years for MPR News. He’s covered several gubernatorial campaigns, two statewide recounts, the presidential bids of Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, U.S. Senate races, close Congressional contests and the Minnesota Legislature. He lives in Falcon Heights with his wife, son and dog. He can sometimes be found chasing a white ball on a golf course. It isn’t a straight walk. Tips are welcome at tscheck@mpr.org

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President Obama’s debate win was truly impressive and now makes three out of four debate wins for Obama/Biden. People seem to finally be realizing that Mitt Romney and the GOP have based an enormous amount of their election strategy on lies, hated and deceit. From the 72 million Americans that will be left without any health insurance, whatsoever, by year 2020, under Romney’s plan (determined by two independent, non-partisan research studies available to the public), to women and minorities being drastically stripped of their equal rights because of his refusal to support initiatives like the Lily Ledbetter Act which enables women to be paid the same as men provided they do the same work (the first act passed by President Obama) or Hospital Visitation Rights which allows gay people the same visitation rights as straight people when a loved one is in hospital, Americans are seeing Mitt Romney for who he really is. From the West Coast to the East Coast and all of our our great country in between, we Americans are seeing from these debates that a Romney/Ryan plan will leave the middle class being burdened with much higher taxes while the wealthiest Americans pay less in tax because “it will help inspire job hiring” which evidence showed us in the Bush years, does not happen. Out of four debates neither Romney or Ryan could specify their “tax plan” despite being given numerous opportunities. That is not honest. That is not American. That is not integrity and that is certainly not Christian. Mitt Romney also has the highest disapproval rating, of all time, of any Presidential candidate, ever. Higher than Bush. We must understand this. The entire world hates the guy. We must be proud to be Americans. We must have a President who represents all of America and that we can be proud of. We are coming out of one of the most difficult economic times in our history in large part because of two wars we are finally ending. We are bringing our brothers and sisters home. But we cannot go backward. We must go forward. We are Americans. And we will prevail.

Bob Henderson

Whats funny here is that both sides claim victory. Both sides claim the other is based off of lies and both sides have their own sources for fact checking.

If you will sit there and say one side is right and one side is wrong… then you have not truly listened to both sides.

They are both spewing the same ideals.

In the end, it is the one with the most momentum that will probably win. Right now Romney has the most momentum and has the lead in most of the major polls.

Obama has the lead in early voting but that is a known trend as normally the Democrats take advantage of the chance to vote early.

Republicans tend to wait till the actual day to vote. So before we get off an any tangent on who is winning lets take a break and watch what happens.

Now I have to take issue with the commenter above me on 2 things.

“We must have a President who represents all of America and that we can be proud of. We are coming out of one of the most difficult economic times in our history in large part because of two wars we are finally ending.”

The commenter is trying to insinuate that Obama is a president for all Americans but the numbers do NOT support such a statement. In fact they show quite the opposite as the average American as become more fractured then ever before in history.

The commenter is also stating normal talking points by both sides and stating that we are slowing moving out of hard times economically. Between you and I… this is just the calm before the storm. It will hit the fan shortly (regardless of who is in the office) and when it does, it will hurt the world over.

Jamie

Bob Henderson, I have time to comment on only one of your assertions. Both “sides” do not lie in equal measure. It’s pretty common knowledge, finally, that Republicans lie much much more than Democrats do. There are at least two websites devoted just to Romney’s many lies throughout this campaign. He and other Republicans lie continually even after the lies have been roundly debunked. They’re proud, by their own admisssions, of the fact that they lie to get elected. They know that lying works because so much of the electorate are under-informed, misinformed, or just not very smart. And Republicans really don’t accuse Democrats of lying very much, probably because Democrats are more concerned with telling the truth and being reasonable, while Republicans are most concerned with WINNING. Someone much wiser than I said this before I did — can’t remember his name (he wrote a book about it).

Dana

It is interesting to me that Jamie feels like “Republicans lie much more than Democrats do”. I am a Republican and I feel just the opposite, like Democrats lie more. I find it interesting because most people in both parties feel very strongly about their beliefs and just a strongly about their parties. As a country, I don’t know how you get past that and become united. It seems pretty impossible.

Carlos Albert

Dana, I think the issue is not who lies more or who tells the truth more. I think, in my opinion, that the issue is who shifts positions more frequently. And it is the Republican candidate who shifts positions more frequently. Those shifts are not necessarily lies, but I think they give the Republican candidate the impression of being inconsistent.

photon71

Carlos, we all can probably agree that Democrats and Republicans alike do lie. As a Republican, I do think

both parties do shift their positions as frequent as necessary to get our votes. “Flip flopping” is something Democrats and Republicans are guilty of doing. It is just plain nature of politics. What we need

is change right now. I think the undecideds should make up their minds with 2 weeks to go. Vote for Obama with a proven track record of failure or take

a chance on somebody like Romney to stir this stagnant economy around.

Wil Sawyer

Hi Jamie. It’s “common knowledge” that Republicans lie more than Democrats? Did you happen to watch the news last night and this morning? We now know that Obama and his team lied to the American people about the attack in Benghazi.

noel

Obama, “I will cut the deficit in half…”that’s the ONLY lie from Obama I need to see! He spent more in 4 years than the idiot Bush did in 8 people!!! Obama will NOT get my vote this time!!! He doesn’t deserve yours either!!! Now with the facts coming out that our president knew, in real time no less, that our consulate in Libya was being torched and Americans were dying, well people, that’s just icing on the cake. Say hello to our next president, w/ our w/out MN… HELLO MITT, fix this mess by the last two bozos!!!

Really. Republicans lie more. Let’s see if the Obama news media will be able to keep under wraps the really the big, major big lie from Obama & company now surfacing. Obama administration’s cover up that resulted in the death of our ambassador and navy seals–it’s apparent who the really big liars are–Obama and Biden on TV to the American people. They knew in real time what was happening in Benghazi and did nothing–nothing for seven hours when they could have possibly saved these men’s lives. But politics is more important to this failure as commander-in-chief. He slept peacfully that night while our people were being killed and then he begs for the mercy of those radical Islamics for a video that had nothing to do with it. What an absolute loser Obama also lied about sequestration–he already signed the damn bill into law that he tried to blame on congress and then lied that it won’t take place. This is the president whose policy is “The buck never stops here with me–put the blame on everyone else.” He is the liar of all times and I’m thinking even worse than Nixon. He may even beat Carter out as the worst president in the history of this country. It’s one thing to lie–it’s another thing to be so gullible to believe it.

Jamie

Looks like the dittoheads have been called on to march over in lock-step to fill this page with their delusions.

Obama did not cover up anything!! The people on the street that night in Benghazi reported to American reporters that the attack was about the video. It took several days to figure out exactly what happened, and when the Obama administration felt they knew what had happened, they reported it. It’s as simple as that! No amount of Limbaugh-ing is going to change the facts.

To the person who said “…Obama administration’s cover up that resulted in the death of our ambassador and navy seals…”[sic] No cover-up resulted in the death of our ambassador and Navy Seals! The attack on the embassy by extremist Lybians resulted in those deaths. And I don’t htink I’ve ever heard that there were Navy Seals there.

You all are so full of hatred toward Obama and towards progressive ideas that you will believe ANYTHING the multitude of lie-based websites and other media (Fox “News”, Limbaugh, Hanity, et al.) tell you.

Jamie

“It is interesting to me that Jamie feels like “Republicans lie much more than Democrats do”. I am a Republican and I feel just the opposite, like Democrats lie more. I find it interesting because most people in both parties feel very strongly about their beliefs and just a strongly about their parties…”

Dana, it is NOT about feelings and beliefs. It is about the FACTS. Romney’s lies, for example, are very well documented. And it’s not just about his changing positions. Those ARE lies, by the way, because he said one set of things several months ago, and now he’s saying the opposite things. But it’s more than just his changing positions. He’s been lying in his stump speeches since before the Republican primaries were over about Obama’s record, and about anything and everything else.

I don’t “FEEL LIKE” Republicans lie more. I KNOW it, based on the facts. And I don’t swallow without question everything that Democrats say either. I pay attention. I read reputable publications and listen to reasonable, informed people.

Republicans are notoriously science- and fact-averse. Just look at what they say about climate change (see Frontline’s Tuesday night episode — it’s probably available on their website). That’s just one example.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered additional security for the U.S. mission in Benghazi ahead of the terrorist attack but the orders were never carried out, according to “legal counsel” to Clinton who spoke to best-selling author Ed Klein.

Those same sources also say former President Bill Clinton has been “urging” his wife to release official State Department documents that prove she called for additional security at the compound in Libya, which would almost certainly result in President Obama losing the election.

Appearing on TheBlazeTV’s “Wilkow!” on Wednesday night, Klein told host Andrew Wilkow that Bill and Hillary Clinton have been having “big fights” for “two or three weeks” about the issue, according to his two sources on Clinton’s legal counsel.

While Bill Clinton wishes his wife would “exonerate” herself by releasing the documents that show she wasn’t at fault for the tragic security failure in Libya, the secretary of state refuses to do so because she doesn’t want to be viewed as a traitor to the Democratic party.

On Glenn Beck’s radio show earlier on Wednesday, Klein said his information comes from two “very good” sources.

Wilkow pointed out the obvious, that the Obamas and the Clintons have a “very behind the scenes, tense relationship” — to put it lightly.

“I said to you last night, and I think I stand corrected, that it seemed like Obama out-Clintoned the Clintons,” Wilkow said. “But Clinton seems to have gone along with all of this because he knew that Hillary would be exonerated in the end.”

He then asked Klein whether he thought Clinton would resign over the Libya scandal and expose the truth.

“No,” the author said immediately. “I can’t imagine that she would resign. It would bring down the entire administration. [Obama] would lose the election and she would be essentially blamed by the left-wing base of the party.”

“She will not be tarred with the blame for bringing down this administration,” Klein added.

In an exclusive interview with TheBlaze, Klein confirmed that Bill and Hillary Clinton have been engaging in “heated discussions” where the former president has urged his wife to “release the documents that would exonerate her.”

He reiterated that Clinton has refused to do so because she fears she would look like a “Judas,” or a traitor, in the administration and it might hurt her chances for a presidential nomination in 2016.

If the claims turn out to be true and Clinton did suggest more security be sent to Benghazi, it is appropriate to ask: why didn’t it happen?

Klein said Clinton’s request for beefed up security would have to go through CIA special ops and or the Pentagon.

“But none of that would happen with the National Security advisor to the president of the United States Tom Donnellan going to the president and saying, ‘We want to send reinforcements to Libya because our ambassador is in jeopardy,’” Klein explained.

Ultimately, he indicated the ultimate authority would have been President Obama.

Wilkow and Klein also discussed what role Obama’s closest advisor, Valerie Jarrett, played in the Benghazi cover-up.

By Obama’s own admission, Klein said, the president never makes a big decision without first consulting with Jarrett.

“We have to assume that Valerie Jarrett, who is also by the way hooked into the Chicago campaign…that she was part of this cover-up in the White House.”

He continued: “The CIA got cables, the Department of Defense got cables, the NSA got cables during the attack on Benghazi, in addition to the emails that have since been made public. We know that there are cables that we haven’t seen yet, confirming the State Department cables that this was an al-Qaeda linked attack.”

These new revelations, following Tuesday night’s explosive report that 300 to 400 national security officials received emails detailing the Benghazi terrorist attack as it was happening, raise fresh questions about the truth behind the Benghazi attack.

The emails revealed that the Libyan radical Islamic group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for the attack just two hours after it began. White House officials told CBS News that an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Libya, providing Washington with a live feed to the chaos that unfolded.